If you like pets this could be a fun business to get into. The latest fashion in pet gifts is pet earrings. Yes, that's right - these are earrings for pets to wear.

At under $10, they're made from a light plastic that you clip on the edges of your pet's ears. Patricia Henderson, who created PetGems as part of her line of jewelry designs for people, says the unique jewelery won't hurt animals as most don't even have nerves in the edges of their ears.

PetGems offers a line of bows, birthstones, and days of the week. The company even has a "rough-and-tough" line featuring a braid finished with a bead and is coming out with a "spike" line to match the spikes in collars. Holiday earrings feature spiders for Halloween, and Santas, Christmas trees, and wreaths for Christmas. www.petgem.com

Creative thinkers celebrate the off-beat. We are surrounded by an extremely competitive environment. My industry of information marketing, internet marketing, direct marketing in general, is very competitive. Hence, everybody is trying to out do each other.

Being unusual can actually work in your advantage because it will guarantee that people will take notice of you. When that happens, it's not long before a lot of people take notice of you.

A good example of that is Jim Edwards. Here's a guy that has his Friday Night Smackdown, and it is completely different from what is found out there. He pushes the envelope, he's on the edge, if you will, every single time he launches an edition, and people actually subscribe to his I Gotta Tell You newsletter just to see what he's going to say because he's different. It's something that other people can't duplicate.

Because of that, it ignites all kinds of energy and excitement, and interest in what he's doing.

Creative thinkers, they prize a variety of ideas, but they're especially passionate about ideas that are new and original, and things that no one has ever thought of before.

Another good example of that is Armand Morin, Alex Mandossian, and Rick Raddatz with Audio Generator and Instant Video Generator.

Here are two products, two services that nobody has ever even thought of before. These guys have put it together. That kind of idea absolutely ignites them, and their imagination, and their excitement because creative thinkers celebrate the off-beat. They're trying to go where no one has gone before.

Of course, there's a huge amount of pride and excitement that comes from being the first to come up with a thought or a different ad campaign, or a story line, or even a headline that works, or a new product, or whatever. But off-beat and imaginative solutions are not just the hallmarks of creative thinking. They are the financial cash cows, and people pay more for unique ideas that they can't get from anyone else.

When you think outside the box, you pretty much guarantee that people are going to take a second look. In fact, there is data to prove that the more dramatically different your ideas are, the higher the probability of success you will have in the marketplace. This was proven by Doug Hall, who founded the Eureka Ranch, and this guy basically gets paid by corporate 500 companies $150,000 for three days of brainstorming.

I had the pleasure of being trained underneath him, and saw the whole process take place.

He has proven with study after study that you actually stand a 350% chance of success, higher probability of success in the marketplace, the more dramatically different your ideas are.

His study was confirmed by one in the Harbour Business Review and they actual found a 370% higher probability that your ideas will be successful in the marketplace, the more dramatically different they are.

In summary, creative thinkers, they celebrate the wacky business ideas and they get rewarded for it through monetary gains. Will you be the next person to come up with an unusual business idea that makes big waves in your industry?

To get more inspired or just to see how some really simple business ideas are making millions for some people read some of these business ideas

I was struggling with my online business. I had built up a decent list, I had lots of people reading my newsletter yet I couldn't seem to make a sale.

Why? Because I was teaching my list about information marketing and then trying to sell products like Ideas 4 Halloween (an eBook on great Halloween ideas). Sure it was a great product, if my list was people interested in Halloween information.

That's when I got a great piece of advice from my good friend Alex Mandossian.

This is how it went down...

I was talking to him about the struggle that I was having up to that point of getting my ideas from concept to cash. That's the essence of what we're all trying to do. The faster you do that, the more products you get up, and the more momentum you build.

In fact, I just wrote about this in one of my recent newsletters that I published today, because momentum is an extremely powerful, powerful force.

If you look at Alex Mandossian, he is kicking some serious rear in the information marketing industry, and it's because he have tremendous momentum. He can't help but be successful because he's done the right thing over and over and built that momentum for himself. The way they do that is by taking their ideas from concept to cash as quick as possible.

Alex told me, when I was talking to him about my struggle to get my ideas from concept to cash, he said, "Stu, stop what you're doing right now. Go after the low hanging fruit."

Write that down - low hanging fruit.

Sometimes it takes that outside perspective to really open your eyes to what your low hanging fruit is. This is the value that a good like minded support group brings.

What I was trying to do - I had a big, hairy project, and I'm still working on it right now. I mean it's a big, audacious idea. It's a big, audacious product. But the problem is because it's so big, it takes the most amount of my time, the most amount of my effort, the most amount of my financial resources, and it's draining me mentally, physically, and financially.

Because of it, I'm getting frustrated, I'm getting irritated, and I'm not making progress.

Alex stopped me and he said, "Go after your low hanging fruit."

He showed me and he taught me what my low hanging fruit was, and as soon as I went after it I generated revenue of over $111,000 in an eight-week period.

What was that piece of low hanging fruit?

It was my very own seminar called the "Idea Incubator" where we teach people how to turn their ideas from concept to cash.

The material that I was teaching I had been teaching at John Childers' training for over a year, and people were drawn to it, they liked it, I had built a customer base, and I had lots of my customers asking me, "When are you going to put on your own event?"

That was my low hanging fruit. People were asking for me to put on my own event, and I was not offering it to them. But the moment I did, the result was tremendous.

Now I want everyone reading this article to stop for a second to think about what your low hanging fruit is. What is it that you are really good at? What are you being constantly asked to do or provide for your customer base?

I bet you have several pieces of low hanging fruit that you have been overlooking.

Find it and you'll go from concept to cash a heck of a lot quicker than I did!

May ideas come to you when you need them the most.

I've got five questions for you that will help spark all kinds of new ideas for you and your business and whatever products or services you're currently offering. So I suggest you either print this article or get a piece of paper and a pen, and write them down. These are very valuable idea stimuli that will spark a whole reaction in you, and you'll start to generate new product ideas, new services.

Question number one: What can I do in the next seven days to increase my conversion rate? To increase my opt-ins? To increase the number of affiliates promoting my products? What can I do in the next seven days to over deliver for my customers? What can I do in the next seven days to show appreciation for my customers?

The base question is: What can I do in the next seven days to%u2026and you can add in all those things. Increase conversion? Increase the number of leads coming in to my business? Increase the traffic? Increase the response rate? Decrease refunds?

There's all kinds of things you can sub in there. But ask yourself those questions and then watch what happens. Watch your imagination take off. Make sure you record those ideas as you start generating them.

Question number two: What marketing ideas are successfully being used in your industry?

Find an industry where you see a business that is very successfully and ask yourself what marketing ideas are used in that industry that you could apply to your business?

Question number three: What are five new ways that I can acquire customers?

Have you ever thought about that? Most of us acquire customers one particular way. We have one method of acquiring customers. Ask yourself: What are five new ways that I can acquire customers? It will set off a chain reaction of ideas for you and your business, and when you start implementing these ideas, your business inevitably is going to expand and grow and get bigger and better and bring in more revenue.

Question number four: Who could really help my idea take off and how can I make it super easy for them to do so?

That one question is an extremely powerful question. I have used that over and over to get all kinds of things in my business. You would not believe the power of that question and how I've applied it in my career.

Let me repeat it again. Who could really help my idea take off and how can I make it super easy for them to do so? Very, very good question.

Question number five: How could I wow blank for under $10?

How could I wow my customers for under $10? How could I wow my affiliates for under $10? How could I wow my joint venture partners for under $10? Heck, how could I wow my spouse, husband, girlfriend, for under $10?

It's an awesome formula. Use it to grow your business. Use it to take your money makers and turn them in to profit empires.

If you got as much out of this information as I did, look for my article Five More Simple Questions That Will Help Spark All Kinds Of New Ideas For Your Business!

Until then...

Former army corporal Duncan Gordon developed a highly unusual business idea while undertaking a unique marketing course at Fife College.

Celebrateyourlife.co.uk offers a record of a person's life to mark major milestones such as retirement, weddings, a special anniversary or as a memorial of a loved one.

Using photographs, memorabilia, poetry and narrative, the 'life' is put together either in hard copy as an album, or as personal pages in their website, or disk format. There are many different uses for the service, from retirement as a leaving gift to a record of someone who is terminally ill who wants to leave a lasting memory to loved ones.

The company also provides a service for pet lovers who may want to remember a "companion" with dedications or verse. www.celebrateyourlife.co.uk

This is a continuation of my article entitled "Five Simple Questions That Will Help Spark All Kinds Of New business Ideas". Within this article we have five more questions that will get your wheels turning and into idea producing mode.
The first five questions were:
1) What can I do in the next seven days to... fill in the blank
2) What marketing ideas are successfully being used in your industry?
3) What are five new ways that I can acquire customers?
4) Who could really help my idea take off and how can I make it super easy for them to do so?
5) How could I wow blank for under $10?

As always, I like to use real life examples to help illustrate my points so it is beneficial for you to give that article a look.

So without further ado, lets begin with Question six: How could I automate XYZ?

I asked Armand Morin one time, "Where do you get your ideas for all of your products?"

He said, "It's simple. I look at what I'm doing and how much time it's taking me. If it's taking me too much time, I ask myself How could I automate this process? Ninety percent of my product ideas come from my ability to recognize what's draining my time. I'm lazy. I want to automate everything."

That's where his product ideas come from. Powerful question, so ask yourself that question. How could you automate XYZ?

Next question - number seven: How could you simplify XYZ?

Is it complicated to buy from you? Have you ever tried to buy from yourself and gone through the process? There are so many products that I've purchased that are absolutely painful to actually buy from somebody.

In fact, recently I was in the process of buying a new server, a new dedicated server. The company that I was trying to buy it from were making me jump through all kinds of hoops. It got to the point where I got so frustrated with trying to purchase from these people, that I gave up and went somewhere else.

So they need to ask the question: How can they simplify the purchasing process for my customers?

It's the same question you could ask yourself, and it can be a very powerful piece of stimuli to spark all kinds of new processes for you.

Question eight: Are there problems my target market is experiencing and how could I solve them with a new product?

Alex Mandossian created a phenomenal piece of software, a phenomenal tool called the Ask Database. For those of you who have it, use it. Constantly ask people what products they're having. Find out what problems they're having and solve them.

A creative thinker is always on the hunt for problems because your future depends on solving problems. If you can solve problems for somebody else, you're always going to be in demand.

Another place I want you to go - write this website down because it is extremely powerful when it comes to finding problems - www.Answer.Google.com.

When you go there, I want you to click on the category that is most applicable to you and your business, and find out what questions people are asking. Those questions are problems.
If you see a common question coming up, that's a clear indication that many people are probably experiencing the same problem. That presents a need for a product to help solve that problem.

So constantly ask yourself the question: Are there problems my target market is experiencing and how could I solve them with a new product?

Next question - number nine: This one Alex Mandossian brought up in his presentation at the most recent Big Seminar, and it's a powerful question. How could I residualize my current products or services?

In today's day and age, look to get paid not once, but more than once. Time and time again. Every single month or whatever. But if you look to constantly residualize your products or services, you're going to have a constant stream of cash flow. Rather than fighting to try to get new customers, you really benefit and leverage your existing customers.

Ask yourself that questions: How could I residualize my current products or services?

Question ten, and the final question I'm going to leave with you is: How could I increase the value of what I'm currently offering?

When you do that, your mind and your brain is just going to take off because you're going to start to think in the customer's favor.

When you do that, you're going to start to generate all kinds of great ideas that work and benefit the customer. And the more you benefit the customer, the more they're going to come back to you, the more they're going to spread the word, and the more revenue you're going to be able to generate from your existing customer base.

That one question helped me get a 100% satisfaction from my very first seminar. Before anybody stepped in to that room, I asked myself How can I increase the value of what I'm currently offering? And the people who came to that seminar got bonus after bonus after bonus. By the end, they were so wow'd with the experience of being at the Idea Incubator, that I had all of them coming up to me saying, "When is the next one? When is the next one? When is the next one?" And now they're evangelists.

Heck, at the Big Seminar they were spreading the gospel, if you will, of what a great time they had and what great value they got at that Idea Incubator seminar.

The only reason that happened was because I put forth the effort and mentally asked that question. How can I increase the value of what I'm currently offering?

When you do that, it just opens up a whole new opportunity area for you, your products, and your services.

That's it!

If hope you got as much out of this information as I did.

May ideas come to you when you need them most. If you need some more help in thinking of a unusual business idea, maybe one of these 277 Unusual Business Ideas will help!